Wednesday, November 16, 2005

You Cannot Change Other People

Today, in the Novena Mass sermon, the Irish priest reiterated one of life's simple lessons that are so hard to follow: "You cannot change other people, people can only change themselves."

You may go around reading that paragraph, nod your head... and 15 minutes later launch into a tirade about how 'some' people are so resistant to change.

I, for one, am not spared from making a fool of myself, trying to change other people 'for the better'. Like the younger students I tried to recruit into my Fraternity; people I wanted to enlist in get-rich-quick schemes that ultimately failed; and close friends who were on the verge of self-destruction.

So, to spare ourselves some aggravation, the priest admonished me and all the others who attended Novena Mass, to "gently remind them of their mistake, and then let them be."